Determination of Tellurium and Selenium in Atmospheric Aerosol Samples by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

A method has been developed for the determination of Te and Se in atmospheric aerosols by ion exchange and atomic absorption (AA) using a graphite furnace atomizer. The method takes advantage of the high sensitivity of AA for Te after removing interfering elements by cation exchange. Up to 3000 ?g of Fe3+, Zn2+, Al3+, Ca2+, K+, etc., did not Interfere with the determination of 1 ?g of Te, but this level of Ag+, Hg2+, As3+, Cu2+, and Se4+ gave negative errors of 30-80%. Ion exchange reduced the effects of these foreign ions to \u3c10%. Recoveries for Te and Se are 92.3% and 92.0%, respectively. The coefficient of variation was about ±6% at the 20 ng to 150 ng level of Te and about ±4% at the 10 ng to 140 ng level of Se